German
German (Deutsch [ˈdɔʏtʃ] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:De-Deutsch.ogg listen)) is a West Germanic language and is closely related to and classified alongside English, Dutch, and the Frisian languages. To a lesser extent, it is also related to the East (extinct) and North Germanic languages. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.[5] Significant minorities of words are derived from Latin and Greek, with a smaller amount from French and most recently English (known as Denglisch). German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlauts, namely ä, ö, and ü, as well as the Eszett or scharfes S (sharp s) which is written "ß". German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. German dialects are traditional local varieties and are traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are not mutually intelligible, since they often differ in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. Standard German originated as a written language, developed over a process of several hundred years, in which writers tried to write in a way that was understood in the largest area. Around the world, German has approximately 100 million native speakers and also about 80 million non-native speakers.[6] German is the main language of about 90 million people (18%) in the EU. 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language, 27% in at least two languages other than their own. German is a Category III language according to The Foreign Service Institute language difficulty rankings meaning it takes a minimum of 36 weeks or 900 hours of study to become proficient. Resources Applications Duolingo *Available on Desktop, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone for free. *Gamified lesson format includes a variety of speaking, listening, translation, and multiple choice challenges covering many fields. *Mobile versions have guided "chats" with bots which can be completed for points. *Duolingo Effectiveness Study and more research here. *Also has a sister website called Tinycards which uses flashcards. **has both pre-made decks, based on the Duolingo courses, and user-generated decks *In beta: Duolingo Stories uses dialogue to help intermediate and advanced learners improve their reading, listening, and comprehension skills Lingvist * Available on Desktop, iOS, and Android for free. * Flashcard system that uses statistically relevant words and phrases to aid memorization. * Very good progress tracking, stats and audio quality. Clozemaster * Available on Desktop, iOS, and Android for free. * Similar to Lingvist in that it promotes memorization through the use of context and word association hence "cloze" (see: Cloze test). * Developers say "it aims to answer the question, "What should I do after Duolingo?" and provide a more sentence based and contextual learning experience." Memrise * Available on Desktop, iOS, and Android for free. * Pre-made and user-generated material (over 20 million users). * Corresponding courses for Assimil, Duolingo, and German for Reading. Anki * Available on Desktop and Android for free. * $24.99 USD on iOS. * Popular flashcard software with user-made "decks" JW Language * Available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone for free. * Similar to Duolingo and Memrise, but made by Jehova's Witnesses. * Has a really cool interactive grammar section which teaches the user my manipulating a sentence in various ways. 'Commercial Products' Assimil *"With Ease" series is recommended for beginners, which will teach the basic rules of grammar and vocabulary of 2000-3000 words. *Involves listening to tapes and reading their book. Later on there are exercises to do. *This method is focused on learning whole sentences, for an organic understanding of the grammar. *Very good system and easy to use. Can be used to gain a strong foothold in the language. Rosetta Stone *5 levels available covering pronunciation, reading, listening, vocabulary, writing *Can be used as a beginning tool but is generally considered overpriced and ineffective. *Very poor for grammar. *Easy to use though it can take more than an hour to set up and begin using. Pimsleur *5 levels totaling 150 30-minute lessons with a focus on speech and conversational ability. *Easy to use, just open the audio file and repeat. *Very expensive. Try a free lesson! Michael Thomas * An aural-oral language program for beginners developed by Michael Thomas -- a well known Polish polygot. * Michel Thomas teaches you grammar: how to use verbs. You'll have the skeleton of the language in your hands but won't have any vocabulary. LingQ (by Steve Kaufmann) * Available on Desktop, iOS, and Android. * $10USD/month; very limited free trial available. * Main function of the website is that is assists with "language input" i.e. reading and listening. While reading with LingQ you can click on words for a definition which creates a "LingQ" (read: link). Everyday you a prompted to review lingq's you have created using a flashcard method similar to memrise. * If the available (user generated) lessons and content is not enough you can import your own content using a browser extension. * There is also a forum for talking with others, and personal tutor lessons as well. * Creator Steve Kaufmann has an active YouTube channel where he talks about learning languages, and about LingQ's functionality (linked above). 'Books and .PDF' files German English Frequency Dictionary Covers about 95% of all spoken German, and 85% of all written German you will encounter on a daily basis. It is a valuable resource especially when used along with other programs, courses, or apps. In the book you will find: * 2500 most used German words listed by frequency and alphabet * frequency rankings as part of speech (most used nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc..) * 2500 German to English example sentences showing word usage * phonetic spelling of German words with the International Phonetic Alphabet German for Reading * Assumes no previous knowledge of German. * More widely available since the 2nd edition was released in 2015. * Still expensive to buy the text, but you can expect to spend 80-120 hours studying its contents which mainly consist of contextual language learning, exercises, and culturally relevant reading examples. * Upon completion "You should be able to read a German newspaper or journal with fair to good comprehension or begin the serious study of German literary texts." It's an excellent complement to audio or oral based programs and courses. Other books: *Basic German. A grammar and Workbook By Heiner Schenke and Karen Seago. *German essential grammar by Bruce Donaldson *Hammer's German Grammar and Usage by Matin Durrell *A practice Grammar of German - Hike Dryer, Richard Schmitt (Hueber 2001) *'A compilation of .PDFs and books of grammar, vocabulary, etc. ' *The Everything Learning German Book, 2nd Edition - Edward Swick (Adams Media, 2009, 2003) *Schaum's Outline of German Grammar, 4ed *German Grammar Sparkcharts *If you know what you're looking for Book Depository sells a variety of foreign language books, including books and manga in German. And it's free shipping! *A guide to buying manga in German *German Graded Readers This is a compilation of books that sometimes you have to read as part of the curriculum in official schools. A lot of them come with the audio files, and you're getting them all for free. Useful Websites Dictionaries *dict.cc should be your go-to DE<->EN dictionary (also supports pronounciation examples for most vocabularies and some other languages like DE<->PL, DE<->FR but in a less complete way) *leo.org as an alternative to dict.cc *Beolingus Excellent German <-> English dictionary including pronunciations and example sentences (most of the time.) *Canoo.net Is a good site for German dictionaries, word formation (conjugation), and sentence grammar. Guides/Grammar * Toms Deutschseite A website which mainly teaches grammar and conjugation * German for English Speakers A nearly-finished complete guide to the German language * Marathon Sprechen Blog A blog on German grammar concepts. They're not posted in any certain order like Tae Kim is, but the examples and explanations are very helpful. * Busuu.com really good website to learn german. Has vocab, scentences structuring, convesations to listen to and teaches levels of German from A1-B2 * Collection of grammar worksheets * german.about.com Wonderful website that covers all things German (such as traditions, etiquette, culture, etc) but in particular: grammar, pronounciation and how to use certain words. * A Review of German Grammar by Bruce Duncan * Jabbalab - good grammar resource with very simple explanations Other * A song for learning the alphabet. * Native Monks Learn German language online through skype. Dead Links * Uz-translations (a very useful website that you should definitely check out) YouTube Channels * Learn German with Antrim - Videos covering a variety of topics related to learning German, including teaching to a child * Deutsch für Euch - Videos covering a variety of topics related to learning German, especially the quirks of German grammar. * Slow German mit Annik Rubens - Podcasts in slow German with each episode's transcript available in German. * Easy Languages / Easy German - Videos in "easy" German (and other langauges) with subtitles in both English and German * LanguageSheep - Videos with detailed explanations for German pronunciations. * Learn German with Ania - qt3.14 teaches you German * Rewboss - British guy living in Germany. * Get Germanized - Videos about German culture and language for English speakers. * smarterGerman * Bookboxinc - Children's stories with audio and subtitles to read along. * Germanpod101.com - Listening practice, you can also visit their website for more. * DW - Deutsch lernen About a spanish dude in Germany. There is an App as well. Good for beginners. * Deutschretter - New Language learning channel (uses POV and On-Screen-Teaching) Media 'News' *Nachrichtenleight News written in easy german. Most articles come with audio which is very useful. *Nachrichtenwerk News written in easy german. *Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung *Süddeutsche Zeitung *Deutschland *Die Zeit *Kurier (Austria) *Kleine Zeitung (Austria) *Presse (Austria) *Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) *Die Bild *Der Spiegel *Deutsche Welle 'Movies' Subtitles *Subscene *Findsubtitles *Opensubtitles *TV4User *Sublearning - learn languages from movie subtitles. Flash cards of movie lines in 62 languages *(add more if you know them lol) Movies *1984 *A Coffee in Berlin *Anatomie *Apollo 18 *Daheim sterben d'Leut *Das Boot *Das Experiment *Das Leben der Anderen *Der Baader Meinhof komplex *Der Himmel über Berlin *Der Untergang *Der Schuh des Manitou *Die weiße Rose *Die Welle *Die Wilden Hühner *Die Wilden Kerle *Die Wolke *Er ist wieder da *Fack ju Göhte *Freche Mädchen *Free Rainer *Gegen die Wand *Goethe! *Good Bye Lenin *Honig im Kopf *Keinohrhasen *Kokowääh *Lammbock *Lola rennt *Lore *Michael Kohlhaas – der Rebell *Nekromantik *Paradies Liebe *Restrisiko *Shoah *Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage *Soul Kitchen *Stalingrad *Suck My Dick ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suck_My_Dick ) *Tatort *Tattoo *Triumph des Willens *Vincent will Meer *Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht TV-Stations *ARD (Germany) *ZDF (Germany) *ORFeins (Austria) *ORF 2 (Austria) *ORF III (Austria) *ServusTV (Austria) *n-tv (Germany) *SWR (Germany) * WRD5 (Germany) *3sat (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) *ARTE (Germany) *SRF 1 (Switzerland) *SRF zwei (Switzerland) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German-language_television_channels Interesting German directors: Michael “Bully” Herbig, Leni Riefenstahl, Jörg Buttgereit, Olaf Ittenbach, Andreas Schnaas, Uwe Boll, Ulli Lommel, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Fatih Akin, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 'Music' *257ers (Hip-Hop/Rap) *Alligatoah (Hip-Hop/Pop) *Angelika Express (Indie Rock) * Beatsteaks (Punkrock/Indie Rock) * Bilderbuch (Indie/pop rock) *Blumio (Hip-Hop) *Blutengel (Future-Pop) *Bushido (Hip-Hop/Rap) *Callejon (Metalcore) *Casper (Hip-Hop/Rap) *CRo (Hip-Hop/Pop) * Darkwood (Neofolk) *Die Ärzte (Punkrock) *Die Orsons (Hip-Hop) *Die Skatoons (Ska) *Die Toten Hosen (Punkrock) * Die Weisse Rose (Neofolk) *EAV (Rock/Pop-Rock) *Eisbrecher (Elektro / Industrial / Neue Deutsche Härte) *Equilibrium (Folk metal) *Falco (Hip-Hop/Rap) * Faun (Pagan Folk) * Forseti (Neofolk) * Hammerhai (Ska-Punk) * In Scherben (Neofolk) *K.I.Z. (Hip-Hop) *Knorkator (Neue Deutsche Härte / Industrial) *Kollegah (Hip-Hop/Rap) *Kraftklub (Rap-Rock) *Kraftwerk (Elektro) *Lacrimosa (Neue Deutsche Härte / Gothic rock) *Madsen (Rock) * Marathonmann (Post-Hardcore) *Marteria (Hip-Hop/Rap) *Megaherz (Industrial / Neue Deutsche Härte) * Nebelung (Neofolk) *Nena (Neue Deutsche Welle / Synthpop) *Nina Hagen (WTF-worthy) *Oomph! (Industrial / Neue Deutsche Härte) *Peter Fox (Hip-Hop / Raggae) *Rammstein (Industrial / Neue Deutsche Härte) *Revolverheld (Rock) *Saltatio Mortis (Folk Rock/Metal) *Seeed (Raggae / Dancehall) *Sido (Rap/Hip-Hop) * Soap&Skin (Experimental) * Sonne Hagal (Neofolk / Experimental) *Sportfreunde Stiller (Indie-Rock) *Unheilig (Neue Deutsche Härte / Synthrock) * Vergissmeinnicht (Neofolk) * We Butter The Bread With Butter (Deathcore / Electro) * Weekend (Rap/Hip-Hop) Literature * Die Brüder Grimm (''Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm) ** ''Kinder- und Hausmärchen ''(Grimms' Fairy Tales)' '- dual language (english/german) edition available here * Franz Kafka ** ''Die Verwandlung ''(The Metamorphosis) ** ''Der Process (The Trial) ** Das Schloss (The Castle) * Hermann Hesse ** Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend ''(Demian) ** ''Der Steppenwolf ''(Steppenwolf) ** ''Siddhartha ** Das Glasperlenspiel ''(The Glass Bead Game) 'Anime/Cartoons' *A lot of current anime and manga are licensed and translated to German. Look up Carlsen-Manga, Kaze and the news section of animexx they usually have an up to date article about recent manga releases. *Spongebob *South Park *My Little Pony *Death Note * Soul Eater * Alfred J. Kwak * Heidi * Ducktales * Darkwing Duck * Pinocchio * Almost all of the Ghibli movies * Puschel * Pipi Langstrumpf * Nils Holgerson * Biene Maja '' '''Brotips' If you have experience learning this language please share it, it's greatly appreciated. General * No single resource will advance you to fluency. Experiment with different apps, programs, books, audio, and other media. * Many videogames have German language support which can be a good way to get some extra practice. Some games may even have German voice acting (e.g. Skyrim). Keep a bilingual dictionary on hand. Many online games can be played on EU/German servers so you can interact with other German players. * You can easily install German along with your native language on your phone. This is very useful when using language learning apps, or chatting with others on your phone in your target language. * When reading the Graded Readers be sure to read those that are one level above yours. If you're studying A2, try reading those labeled B1. That way you'll be practicing your A2 and learning new things from B1. Grammatical *When learning vocabulary it's important to learn the article as an important part of the word and not just the word by itself. So it's not Hund, but der Hund. ''Not just ''Halskette but'' die Halskette. '' *Learn about the High German consonant shift not only will it help you understand a little bit about how German spelling works, but will help your acquisition of cognates. For example, an English D is a T in German, e.g. World -> Welt, Good -> Gut, Word -> Wort, Dance -> Tanz. Tips for studying word genders: *When writing out vocabulary or adding nouns to Anki, colour code your words! Blue for masculine nouns, pink for feminine, green for neuter. *One technique I learned in class is visualizing a male, a female and something considered neuter (let's say ET) along with the noun I'm learning. So David Hasselhoff sits on der Tisch, ''Angela Merkel opens ''die Tür and ET drinks das Bier. **Use this in conjunction with Anki! I use a bunch of kawaii as fuck images I pull from the internet with my cards to remember my genders. Want to remember the gender for die Sandburg? Find a picture of a little girl playing with a sandcastle and stick that in your Anki cards. *There are also a few hints you can use to recall genders of certain words. *If you have time, write three stories and use only nouns from one gender for each one. This way the next time you need to remember, for example, the gender of "Nachbar" all you have to do is remember in which story was the word used. Make the protagonist of the story the same gender as the other objects. For example, if you're a man, you can be the protagonist of the story with masculine nouns. Your mother can be the protagonist of the story with feminine nouns, and something that you know to be neutral (e.g. Mädchen) can be the protagonist of the story with neutral nouns. My story for the masculine gender starts like this: I wake up and my '''Kopf '''is on the '''Tisch'. I've fallen asleep on front of the Bildschirm '''of the '''Computer. I've fallen asleep over my Kugelschreiber, Radiergummi '''and '''Bleistift. I sit up on the Stuhl '''and I take a look at the '''Kalender. What Tag '''is it today? Oh shit, I'm gonna be late. I take my '''Rucksack '''from the '''Boden '''and throw my '''Ausweis '''inside. It's cold today, so I better take my '''Pullover, my Schal '''and '''Handschuh. I get out of the Raum. I can hear a Schrei '''from my '''Nachbar. "Mein Gott", I think. They're always fighting. Perhaps I should write them a Brief '''and put it in their '''Briefkasten. I drink my Kaffee, clean my 'Mund '''and take the '''Aufzug '''to go out. Category:Germanic Category:Latin alphabet Category:Declensions Category:Badass Category:Useful Category:FSI difficulty level 3